Social Networking is here to stay; its becoming the cornerstone of the way we do business in the 21st Century and beyond.

At the top of every business strategic planning meeting should be the following:

Item 1 ? how can we increase revenue by leveraging social networking across the business (not just in the marketing department)?

Consider the following thoughts:

Do you see social media as a useful tool in marketing but not much more beyond that?

Is your social networking strategy highly targeted?

Are the interactions you have with customers delivering sustained outcomes?

How successful to your business bottom line are the two-way conversations you are currently having through social channels?

How much more successful would your marketing strategies be if they were more effectively targeted to your audience and ultimately made better use of your marketing and communication $.

Does your social networking empower your staff to be able to engage more effectively with each other and with customers?

How is social networking being utilized in your business? Do you use it to break down internal departmental silos?

What tools have you invested into for your frontline staff?

How would business grow by matching staff to customers?

The addition of Communication DNA to your social media will unlock your business for revenue growth by navigating the human differences in your business and discovering and aligning the different communication styles, behaviors and solution preferences of your diverse customers and employees.

Using Communication DNA enables your business to have customized and focused conversations with millions of people. Businesses will be able to discover the emotional decision-making patterns of customers and employees to allow for the real time customization of sales, marketing and customer service activities using cutting-edge technology platforms.

Communication DNA can make 1 to 1 customer conversations count by ensuring no part of the exchange is lost. Communication DNA matches advisors to clients, sales staff to customers, product and services to the individual providing an engaging process at all levels of interaction to acquire and retain loyal relationships.

Random messaging and exchanges can make or break relationships and business opportunities instantaneously. Businesses that implement the Communication DNA app can achieve business performance gains of 40% in personal productivity for sales and service people, 70% in team productivity and a 23% increase in revenue.

Communication DNA gives you laser focused insight into how to conduct conversations between customers and employees. It puts influence into the hands of staff enabling them to engage more effectively with each other and with customers.

Communication DNA empowers employees in your sale, service and development teams to join forces to build effective customer relationships and experiences.

Communication DNA enables you to build deeper and more effective relationships by engaging with customers at the most critical point of reference ? the first time they contact you.

Communication DNA delivers to businesses the ability to segment their customer base and their staff in a way that fundamentally changes the way you do business.

Today, we are seeing a great increase in the use of CRM software in managing customer relationships. A good CRM definitely helps sales teams in keeping track of customer information. However, to be really effective the intelligence stored in the CRM must be connected to all company systems that are involved in serving the customer. This starts with connection to the phone system system on a real time basis.

Does your call center, service center and reception know who the clients are when they call in? Do? they know enough of the clients behavioral style to provide a customized experience? Imagine the increased revenue gains and efficiency if the right employee could be matched to the customer starting with the phone calls. To do this the CRM and phone system must be connected, and the right behavioral data stored and programmed into the CRM.

Why do retailers want to read your mind? Because they understand that if they enhance a customers overall experience in their store, their customers will spend more time and money.

A recent USA Today article detailed the mix of initiatives that retailers are testing in order to target you with products and promotions that are likely to resonate with you.

Loyalty cards, birthday promotions and sale pricing are all examples of how a retailer gets the demographic information so they can tailor the shopping experience for you. Understanding what life stage you are in, whether or not you buy on impulse or rational thoughts, what type of ambiance is best for you are critical in attracting the right type of customer.

David Forbes, a psychologist who consults with Nordstrom and Gap, recently came up with an industrial chic dcor for outlet stores. After all, Forbes says, a stores ambiance can lure or repel consumers based on their mindsets and what they are looking for emotionally in a shopping trip.

Its not just retailers that are moving towards the behavioral model. Any business with a customer understands the more quickly they truly know and engage a customer on their terms, the stronger the relationship. What experience are you creating for your clients?

Imagine a world where you could objectively learn the communication style of your prospect in three minutes!? How about matching the right salesperson to the right prospect at the very beginning of the sales process so that trust was built quickly and the sale was much easier?

When it comes to building meaningful and successful relationships with your family, friends, colleagues and clients, effective communication is foundational. The quality of your relationship with any person has a direct impact on the quality of decisions that get made. When the communication is poor, people start making decisions around each other because the trust has been diminished. Poor communication and breakage in trust may be the result of differing styles of communication or behavior. However, it can also be a simple case of misunderstanding another person’s words or actions.

In their recent management principle, Internal Innovations addresses an important aspect of good communication? – managing other’s perceptions. Dean Harbry writes, “it is important to realize that we are responsible for managing other’s perceptions of us. Taken to an extreme, this could be harmful and even manipulative, but utilizing self-awareness and empathy is crucial when others are left to judge. It is unfortunate but true that people will judge others by their actions and themselves by their intentions”.

When you find that there may be a gap between “what was said or done” and “what was heard or perceived”, make the effort to close the gap. Clarify your intentions to make sure that you have been fully understood. This will benefit your relationships in the long run.

How might you need to modify your behavior to manage other’s perceptions?

To read the full article on the Internal Innovations blog, click here.

Everyone is talking about client engagement, but what are firms actually doing about it?? Client engagement is not just about good feelings; it has emerged as the #1 driving factor in revenue growth.

Want to know how?? Heres a simple example.? I was strategizing with one of my coaching clients, Greg, a financial advisor at a leading RIA firm, and he mentioned his firm was adding two more product providers to their preferred list.

Greg called eight high-quality firms and left a message for his local wholesaler to call him back.? Out of those eight, only five called him back.? Filter number one applied:? I only do business with people who return phone calls.

Greg had conversations with each of those five wholesalers. All seemed to be knowledgeable about their products and eager to earn his business.? To close the conversation, Greg gave each of them very specific common requests with a due date. Each wholesaler promised that his or her internal sales partner would promptly email the information to him.

Out of those five wholesalers, only three actually delivered the right material, if any at all.?? Filter number two applied:? I only do business with people who demonstrate credibility, that is, say what you will do and then do it.

In the blink of an eye, we are down to three firms.

So, I asked Greg how he selected the two firms.? Was it the unique value proposition of the firm or the product track record, or the knowledge level of the wholesaler?? Gregs answer will surprise some you.? All of that stuff is pretty much the same story, he replied.

The real difference is that one of the wholesalers actually created a unique experience for me.? She understood exactly how to present her standard product to me in my terms.? The entire interaction was all about me and I felt a higher level of trust with her and her products.

Greg added only one new firm to his list.? Will your firm be the ONE next year?

Start engaging your advisors now with an online tool that gives you and your team easy answers to customizing every advisor interaction.

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